TWA #79 – Farms

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Greetings, short story lovers, and welcome to this week’s mystery prompt.

Our topic this round is one that is everywhere and spans all of time. In fact, many scholars state that civilization doesn’t really exists unless a people have developed this prompt. It is the source of all that nurtures and a constant subject of debate…and every culture has their own twist on it.

The prompt? Farms.

Farms and their activities speak directly to the heart and soul of a civilization, and many artists through the years have recognized this. From ancient tales of conquerors salting the earth so that nothing could grow, to Van Gogh capturing the farmers of his countryside. From Charlotte’s Web to Animal Farm. From Soviet mushroom gathering to the great potato famine. Farms are everywhere in our culture and in our art.

Our author’s task this week was to write us a story involving a farm. And, for the record, we are defining a farm as anywhere that crops or livestock are raised for mass consumption. So we ruled out wider interpretations of the word “farm”. No XP farms, for instance.

We have two judges that will render their decision next Monday. The third vote comes from you, the readers. We ask that you read both stories objectively, and then leave a comment below or on the story itself. Authors are not allowed to comment on their own stories, but we’re sure they’ll be checking in here. We’ll tally up the totals and announce our champion on Monday.